Growing up.
It had been about two weeks since the…”incident” with Soozee.
After years of studying the Void, it finally happened. Soozee snapped. She went rogue, tried to kill fellow Firebrand employees, start her own cult, and begin a ritual that would see her “ascend into godhood”, whatever that meant. Luckily, Spritzie and the other Firebrands were able to save her from herself - Teka and the other shamans exercised the void entity out of Soozee and the light cannon they discovered in her lab destroyed it.
After spending the next few days in a coma, Soozee finally awoke…and the first thing she did was try to kill herself. After Valerie foiled that attempt, Spritzie took her sister back to the ranch, making a point to lock up any and all sharp instruments, drugs, and especially her rifle. In the weeks since then, Soozee has been spending much of her time sequestered in the guest room she was staying in, hardly ever speaking a word.
One thing she DID tell Spritzie however, was to sell off her assets in order to pay for her hospital bills - she was fired at around the time she tried to lure several employees into her lab to kill them, so healing services didn’t come free for her. So she gave Firebrand Enterprises everything - her lab, her experiments, everything she had ever created. Spritzie was surprised. Soozee would just…give it all up?
Soozee said that she didn’t need it anymore. Not any of it.
It was morning, and Spritzie was making coffee. She heard footsteps coming down the stairs, which struck her as odd - her sister wasn’t normally up this early. She turned her head and saw her sister, dressed in an old black robe that Spritzie had lying around…
As well as a suitcase.
“Could you make my breakfast to go, Spritzie?” Soozee asked.
“Er…where you goin’?” Spritzie asked back.
“I don’t know.” Soozee said. “My plan was to go to Silvermoon City first. Beyond that…I don’t know, I suppose I’ll improvise.”
“What are you talking about?” Spritzie asked.
“I’m leaving, Spritzie.” Soozee bluntly replied as she stuffed a black robe with red trim inside. “I can’t stay here.”
“W-w-what do you mean?” Spritzie asked.
“There’s nothing for me here.” Soozee said. “…Don’t give me that look. Please, don’t make this any harder than it needs to be.”
“B-b-but what about that job interview?!” Spritzie asked.
“You mean the one YOU tried to set up without telling me?” Soozee asked. “It was an exercise in futility, Spritzie. Mrs. Firebrand doesn’t want me back in her company - she has made that VERY clear.”
“Okay, but just hear me out - I’m gonna be named a stakeholder next month!” Spritzie said. “And once I become that, that’ll give me a little extra leverage to-“
“Why do you even want me here?!” Soozee snapped.
“Because you’re my family!” Spritzie snapped back. “We’re SUPPOSED to stick together! We’re supposed to take care of each other!”
“Oh please.” Soozee harrumphed as she went back to packing. “Mom died when you were a baby, Dad and Jakko haven’t been on speaking terms in years, Rikko’s dead - “
“Exactly!” Spritzie said. “Don’t you get it, Soozee? We’re runnin’ out of family! We gotta-“
“Spritzie, I’m going to say something to you that you may not have ever heard before.” the blonde goblin said. With a fully packed suitcase, she whirled on her heels and stared her redheaded younger sister down. “Grow up.”
Spritzie was taken aback by that.
“You may have everyone else fooled with this angry, bloodthirsty, foul-mouthed persona you’ve invented for yourself, but it doesn’t fool me.” Soozee said. “I know that, buried deep beneath all that rage, you’re still that same, lonely little girl who’s terrified of losing people. Well, let me tell you something - of COURSE you’re going to LOSE people. That’s how life works. Sometimes through tragedy, sometimes through a mutual parting of ways, but YOU. WILL. LOSE PEOPLE.”
She gestured to the window. “Take a good look outside, Spritzie. Look upon your ranch.”
Hesitantly, Spritzie did so. Matilda was chasing the feeder sheep that roamed free across the grounds. Cera was browsing by the blueberry bushes again. Spike was napping by clinging to the side of the barn. Argunite was napping under the shade of a tree. Cambria had buried herself in the mud by the pond. And Pinecone was near the house itself, keeping a steady watch on the others.
“NOTHING you see out there is permanent.” Soozee said. “One day, it will all be gone.”
“…Is that what the Void told you?” Spritzie asked.
“It didn’t need to.” Soozee replied. “That’s just a fact of life.”
Soozee grabbed and hefted her suitcase. Spritzie turned to her. “Soozee, the first thing you did when you woke up was try to kill yourself. How will I know that you’ll be okay without me?”
“You won’t.” Soozee bluntly replied. “And that’ll have to be your burden to bare. As for my own burdens…well…I’ve been doing some thinking and, for what it’s worth, I DO plan on exploring other options before attempting another suicide.”
“What kind of options?” Spritzie asked.
“Don’t know.” Soozee replied. “I suppose I won’t know until I explore them.”
She looked at Spritzie. “…You’ve already done far more for me than I deserve. I thank you for this second chance. I promise…I’ll try not to waste it.”
And then she walked out of the room. Spritzie didn’t stop her. She knew there wasn’t any point in it.
Soozee left the ranch. She walked up to the Pyrewatch flight master and paid two gold pieces for a wind rider to Silvermoon. Soozee Boomsprocket didn’t know what she would find. She didn’t even know what she was looking for anymore. But she knew one thing for sure - she wouldn’t find it here.
